Decaffeinated coffee.



NATHAN ROSEWATER, or CLEVELAND, 01110.

nncarrnmarnn COFFEE.

T,Wl6,293.

No Drawing.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 6, 1912.

Application filed October 17, 1907. Serial No. 397,804.

To all whom it may concern,

Be it known that I, NATHAN ROSEWATER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Decaiieinated Gofiee and Processes of Producing the Same, of which the following isa full, clear, and exact descriptiom p The primary object of this invention is to substantially eliminate cafi'ein from cofl'ee beans and to produce a product resembling the natural beans, but from which, after the same has been roasted and ground, one may make, by the usual methods, a codec beverage which can scarcely be distinguished by its aroma and taste from that made from "the ordinary roasted cofl'ee bean commonly used for-this purpose, but which, because the caffeinthat has been eliminated without the use of chemicals which are deleterious in a food product, is not inimical to health.

In carrying out the invention, the green beans are macerated in hot Water. The temperature of the water and the time duringwhich this step shall be carried on, and the number of times it should be repeated may be varied with the character of thc coflee bean employed, and also with respectto the completeness with which it is desired to eliminate the cafiein. The result of this treatment is that a very large percentage of the hot water soluble constituents of the bean will be dissolved, This being accomplished,

the beans and the solution are segregated, and the beans are dried. Then this hot water extract is so treated as to. remove from are not soluble in cold water.

" residue into the cold water which. will not dissolve thecafiein to any appreciable de gree, but will dissolve substantially all 0 the other ingredients of the hot water extract. This cold water solution containing all of the extractives which were removed by the hot water, excepting only substan dried beans from which they were extracted. These be'ans will absorb this extract. Thereafter the beans may be dried. The result will be that the beans will have had re stored to them, but'in positional relations 'quite different from such relations in the natural bean, but in unaltered chemical conditions all of those extractives or constituents which were removed by the hot water treatment, except such, including calfein, whichcold water will not dissolve.

Example: A total of 101 pounds of equal proportions of Java, Mocha and Santos Rio green unbroken cofiee beans are thoroughly mixed. If one pound of this mixture, taken as a sample, is finely ground and assayed for its cafl'ein, the assay will show that about one per cent. of the mass is cafiein, and that the total hot Water soluble constituents, when dried at 212 F. are about 15 per cent. of the mass.

The remaining 100 pounds of the green whole beans are placed in a suitable containing vessel, to which is added about eleven 1 tially the cafiein, is now poured over'the hundred pints of wat'erwhich is to be kept at-a temperature of about 200 or 210 F. for about twelve hours, during which time the cofi'ee is macerat-ed in this hot Water. At the end of thistimethe beans will have swollen and absorbed approximately one pintfor every pound of beans, sothaton straining and re-' moving this maoerating fluid, about onetion in hot water under the same. conditions and for about the same length of ti'me. During each maceration about per cent. of the remaining hot water soluble constituents will be removed, and about one-tenth ofthe original cafiein'. The first, and perhaps t-he ,second hotv water extract, should be kept for future use. After thelbe'ans have been macerated in hot water asfiiany times as" as after'be subjected several times to macerais required to remove as much of the 'cafiein as it is desired to remove, the beans will be removed from the water and dried. During the process of immersion in hot water the beans swell and become denuded of a delicate skin like covering which was\practically destroyed by swelling.

The first extract (or perhaps commercially it will be found that the first two extracts maybe profitably so treated) will the hot water and the then be evaporated to dryness, and thedried residue redissolved in cold water at a temperature of about 32 to 40 degrees,- using somewhere about one-eighth of a pint of wa- -ter for eachpoundZof dry residue. .Substantially all of the extractives Which were removed by the hot water will be redissolved in this cold water, excepting only the caflein which will not be so dissolved in any appreciable quantity, if at all. The beans themselves having been dried are now immersed in this cold water extract, and they will ab- .been removed from them,

' evaporating the absorbed water, the extrac- "-m y' be prepared o readily t fmm in the undried tives'will be left therein, occupying difli'erent'positi'onal relations to the" cellular compositions than the relations they occupied green bean; but they will largely still be ith'ere and will have suffered no chemical change during the practice off the process. These beans may now be roasted and ground, and a coffee extract for beverage may :be prepared therefrom, just as from natural beans; except that the sam'e untreated beans, because the extractives are in the superficial parts of the bean in greater proportion than in its depth and more readthe roasted and with which I am at all ily dissolved out with. heat. The resulting beverage will have all of the desirable taste and aroma of the beverage produced from ground untreated natural beans.

' It is to be noted that in the car of this process, nochemical is used allowed toremain in the product,

ing out which, if will have any deleterious effect upon the health of the user. 3 No chemical is used which can have produced any chemical stored constituents. In all prior processes familiar chemicals are used during thetreatmentwhich, if not completely eliminated will render the prodnet-unsafe for useas a food; and thevery fact that some part of such chemicals may be. left'rn the product of itself renders the insoluble in cold.

change in the re- 't-he beans; and some of the substances resulting from such chemical changes are toxic or otherwise injurious to healt While the hereinbefore described process, as defined by claims 1 and 2, is of greatest commercial value for the treatment of coffee beans, there are other natural beans which, after treatment of various sorts, are used for the making of beverages. The described process, as defined by said claims, is intended to include the treatment of such other beans as well as coffee beans.

Having describedmy invention, I claim: 1.,The process of treating natural unbroken beans which contain caflein, which consists in the maceration of said beans in hot water only, in removin from 'the' resultant extract those extractlves (including caifein) which are substantially insoluble in very cold' water, and in, restoring to the beans in altered positional relations but in unaltered chemical composition all of those said extractives which are soluble in very cold water.

2. The process. of. treating natural unbroken beans which contain caifein, which consists in macerating said beans in hot water only; in segregating the resultant extract and the beans; in drying the latter; in evaporating the said extract to dryness; in forming a cold water solution of so .much of the residue as will dissolve in very cold water; incausing the dried beans to absorb this cold water extract; and in finally drying said beans.

.3. As'a new article of manufacture, green denuded unbrokenbeans of the sort which originally contained caffein, but from which has been removed a large proportion of such of the constituents of said beans as are soluble in hot water, and which contain, in altered positional relation but in unaltered chemical composition, all of those ingredients which are not only soluble in hot water but are also soluble in very cold water.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto aflix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

Y NATHAN ROSEWATER. Witnesses:

E. L. Tmms'ron, E. B. GmoHms'r. 

